June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer
Marissa Mayer said she apologized and did “feel really badly”
for being late to a dinner with advertisers last week in Cannes,
France, in her first public comments since facing criticism over
the incident.

Mayer said in an interview that she didn’t mean to slight
attendees at the dinner hosted by Interpublic Group of Cos. at
Cannes Lions, an advertising festival that drew Google Inc., AOL
Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others. She said she was pleased with
the more than 200 meetings that Yahoo had at Cannes.

“I feel like our ad story is really resonating and I’m
really quite happy with it,” Mayer said in the exclusive
interview. “I think the dinner is unfortunate how much
attention it’s gotten. I was late. I apologized to IPG at the
time and in no way meant for it to be a slight to them.”

Mayer is responding after critics questioned her commitment
to building relationships with advertisers following the Cannes
event. The 39-year-old CEO kept guests waiting for about two
hours at the dinner that was attended by top ad executives,
according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not
to be identified because the meal was private. Mayer later told
guests she had overslept, said one of the people. Michael Roth,
CEO of Interpublic Group, left before she arrived, the people
said.

Tom Cunningham, a spokesman for Interpublic, didn’t respond
to a request for comment on Mayer’s remarks.

Turnaround Pressure

Mayer has been under scrutiny since taking the helm of
Yahoo in July 2012. She is facing pressure to turn around the
Sunnyvale, California-based Web portal as it grapples with
competition from Google and Facebook Inc. While Yahoo showed
signs of progress in the first quarter as revenue expanded for
the first time in more than a year, sales growth is estimated by
analysts to remain at less than 5 percent for the next three
years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The projections signal Mayer still has to make headway with
advertisers, who are Yahoo’s key clients. The CEO has made
efforts this year to reach out, appearing at a key ad-agency
conference in Los Angeles for the first time in March to tout
new marketing tools and user engagement.

‘Multiple Years’

Mayer said in the interview that Yahoo has worked hand in
glove with advertisers to develop new products and content for
brands to market against, including live content and more. She
said she is “proud” of the team and how the company’s
trajectory is positive, with traffic, page views and users now
growing.

“We always said it would take multiple years to be growing
the way we want to grow,” she said.

At the company’s annual shareholder meeting today in Santa
Clara, California, Mayer also focused on Yahoo’s progress in the
past year in developing mobile, social, native advertising and
video products. Yahoo in particular will seek to expand
advertising using social-media tool Tumblr, purchased last year
for $1.1 billion, she said.

“Our investments are all focused in these areas,” Mayer
said at the meeting. “We’ve overhauled every product in our
product line and introduced many new ones.”

The CEO has stirred controversy before, including in
February 2013 when she ordered employees who work from home to
begin reporting to offices. While the directive was aimed at
fostering collaboration and boosting the speed and quality of
task completion, it sparked concern that Yahoo doesn’t place a
premium on work-life balance or flexible work arrangements.

New Content

At Cannes last week, Mayer told ad executives about new
content on the Web portal, including shows such as a “Other
Space,” a 30-minute program produced by Paul Feig, director of
the film “Bridesmaids,” a move meant to lure viewers and the
advertisers that want to target them. She also discussed Yahoo’s
acquisition of Tumblr last year and rolled out new marketing
products including sponsored posts on the blogging site.

Mayer said Cannes was a “very productive set of days,”
including her participation in 20 meetings with ad agencies,
brands and more. The company has made progress on the product
front, which was evident at Cannes, she said.

Some advertisers like what they’ve seen under Mayer. Cereal
maker Kellogg Co. has increased spending with Yahoo this year
compared with 2013 as the company’s media properties performed
well, said Jon Suarez-Davis, vice president of global media and
digital strategy at Kellogg.

“I think Marissa has done a good job of listening,” said
Suarez-Davis, who attended Cannes. “She’s put in a great team.
We continue to invest in Yahoo.”

Humorous Comments

Mayer said in the interview that she tends “to try and
isolate myself” from some of the public uproar and so she
hadn’t seen much of the reaction to the IPG dinner. She said she
did see some posts from Box Inc. CEO Aaron Levie, who said the
only news in the situation was that “Marissa does sleep.”

“I did always appreciate that Aaron can see the humor in
things,” Mayer said.

Levie didn’t respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

When asked if she would return to Cannes next year, Mayer
said she would take it as it comes. While calling the event
“clearly a good place to reach advertisers,” she said she
likes to be internally focused and wants her team to have the
opportunity to interact with clients.

“We’ll make sure Yahoo is well represented in Cannes next
year,” she said.